Naughty Dog Discuss the Themes of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

In the November Issue of OPM UK, Naughty Dog has revealed some of the themes that will be featured in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Nathan Drake’s story this time will focus on the ramifications of choosing between his passion and those he loves.

Speaking on the themes, Neil Druckmann, Creative Director and Writer for the game said:

“With Uncharted 4, as we were building it we were realising more and more what the theme is: it’s that balance between pursuing your passions and being with the ones you love, and what happens when you have to choose between those two things”

Continuing, he goes on to say:

“Is there a way to reconcile that? That’s the message of this game, and everything is constructed around that very simple concept.”

With Uncharted 4 being the final game for Nathan Drake, we can see what his choice appears to be. Whether this is forced on him or not though will be revealed in the game itself.

Adding a finality to the tale of Nathan Drake is an interesting move, the question to be answered next of course will be if a new character could continue the Uncharted franchise? This is discussed in the same interview with Uncharted 4 Writer, Josh Scherr. His thoughts on this are:

“I don’t know. That’s a good question, I think one thing that’s been great about this series is that we have created this…I hate to use the word universe because Marvel’s overusing it, but we’ve created this world where ancient civilisations remain undiscovered and lots of charismatic and unscrupulous treasure hunters exist to go and pursue these. I suppose you could tell a story in that world without Nathan Drake, but it’s…in some ways a little hard to imagine.”

These are interesting words to use, especially the idea that this world that Naughty Dog have created could be used to create further stories. As you can see from the quote though, with the writers not even sure that they could do this, would it be something they would agree to do?

What are your thoughts on continuing the Uncharted franchise without Nathan Drake? Could it work? Let us know your thoughts below.